PHILADELPHIA — Jake Voracek does the same thing when he gets to the rink before a game.

Flyers team meeting at 5:10, listen to some music, play some soccer, warm up on the ice with everyone a half hour before the puck drops.

“There we go,” he said. “Nothing crazy.

“I’m not particular on time, but it’s the same thing when I get back to the rink. When I get home ,I just go to bed and wake up and go to the rink (for practice the next day). There’s a few more crazy people in this locker room that you can ask.”

Preparation came into question before the Flyers left for their road trip. They allowed the first goal in all six of their home games before Thursday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes. After those games, players said it was because they hadn’t prepared properly.

It seems not everyone is on board with that line.

“It has nothing to do with not being prepared to play,” Voracek said. “Sometimes you play and you just aren’t playing good. You can prepare yourself the best you can and sometimes it doesn’t work. I’m the wrong guy to ask. I’m pretty easygoing. I still take it as fun, hockey’s fun.”

To question preparation, that specific word, lights a big red siren. It sounds like a child not doing their homework before school, like something that should be easy to do as a professional athlete being paid handsomely.

When players questioned their preparation, it was usually specific to their starts of games. General manager Ron Hextall noted that in a long season it’s not always easy to do, but the fact that the stretch in question came early in the season seemed to be particularly damning.

“Unfortunately, at times we’re human beings and they don’t perform as well as they need to perform,” Hextall said. “It’s not acceptable, don’t get me wrong, but it is a hard season. We’ve been going good for a week here. We need to continue to push it. If we push it for the next month, all of a sudden we’re in a pretty good spot. Can the individuals get better in preparing themselves? Yes. It’s something they recognize, which to me is a good thing and not a bad thing. If they were saying, ‘Individually we’re prepared. We’re not playing well,’ then we’ve got a problem.”

While in California and Arizona, the Flyers seemed well prepared. They scored first in all four of those games and — although this probably won’t be the case for the duration of the year — they never trailed at any point in those games.

Now they’re back at home and Thursday marks the start of a five-game homestand.

How does the preparation differ?

“It’s a lot different when you’re on the road,” Shayne Gostisbehere explained. “All you’re thinking about is hockey. When you’re home you have your home life. Guys have families and what not. You have other things (like) people visiting. It’s a lot different when you’re at home. I think for us, coming off a great road trip like that, especially a hard one on the West Coast and coming away with seven of eight points, that’s huge for us. It’s good momentum to bring into our building.”

“I don’t know what it is, something we’re eating or what is going on,” Scott Laughton said. “I think every guy does the same things since they’ve been in junior or minor hockey and stick with it.

“We gotta be better at home. I think we get too comfortable in our play and we just gotta play like we did on the road, play fast through the neutral zone and get on pucks and we’ll be fine. I really like our ice and everything like that.”

The Flyers desperately need to improve their record at Wells Fargo Center. Last year they were 22-13-9 on home ice and this year only the Florida Panthers (0-3-1) were worse than the Flyers (2-4-0) at home before Thursday night’s action.

Laughton said that starts at home have been a topic of conversation since the return. In an 82-game season, there can be some monotony to that aspect of the job.

“Sometimes,” Laughton said, “but I don’t think it gets boring or anything like that. I think you’re just preparing for a game. It’s just part of your job, part of your routine. First and foremost, it’s not to get hurt. You’re getting warm and stuff like that so you don’t go warm up and you’re stuck.”

Thursday marked Game 16. It’s a little early for habits to be getting mundane. They’ll need to find a way to replicate what they did on a 3-0-1 road trip at home for a couple weeks.

“I think if you prepare the same way and take that mentality, ‘I don’t care how we do it, we’re going to go out there and win,’ I think at home sometimes it’s a little tougher,” goalie Brian Elliott said. “You’ve got families or friends in town. On the road you just kind of have your hotel room to get focused. It’s trying to take that same focus and bring it here. It’s gonna be a challenge. It shouldn’t be, but the way we’ve played at home we really have to take a hard look in the mirror and say, ‘We’ve got to bring it the same way.’”